DOOH Grew 13% Globally For JCDecaux; Best Performer For OOH Media Giant

May 15, 2023 by Dave Haynes

Digital OOH is the biggest growth driver globally for JCDecaux, which has reported 13% growth in that category – more than double that of overall growth for the world’s largest OOH media company.

Q1 2023 Group revenue grew by +5.6%, +5.0% on an organic basis, to reach €721.3 million. The company says that exceeded expectations, and the picture would have looked even better were it not for China, which was down 14%.

Says the company in investor PR:

Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH) grew by +13.3% in reported growth and +13.6% organically in Q1 2023, to reach 31.2% of Group revenue vs 29.1% in Q1 2022 including a continued strong momentum of the programmatic advertising sales ecosystem through the VIOOH SSP (Supply Side Platform) and Displayce DSP (Demand Side Platform).

By activity, Street Furniture was strong at +4.1% organically in Q1 2023 and was above Q1 2019 globally including double-digit above Q1 2019 in France and Rest of Europe; Billboard grew by +1.0% on an organic basis in Q1 2023, above Q1 2019 in Asia-Pacific and North-America; Transport grew strongly by +7.9% organically, including a double-digit revenue growth in France, Rest of Europe, UK and Rest of the World reflecting the ongoing audience recovery in both airports and public transport across most regions with Rest of the World above 2019 in Q1. From a historically low level of activity, China improved throughout the quarter following the end of mobility restrictions at the end of 2022.

By geography, Rest of the World, Asia-Pacific excluding China, France and Rest of Europe were the fastest growing regions while revenue for North America and China decreased in Q1 2023 but the trading momentum improved significantly in these two geographies in March.

As far as Q2 is concerned, we expect organic revenue growth around +9% mostly driven by a strong digital growth and a gradual recovery in China while advertising sales in most geographies remain solid.

In China, we are seeing encouraging signs of recovery with domestic mobility now back to normal leading us to a strong year-on-year double-digit revenue growth in Q2. As domestic air travel reached an all-time high for the Labor Day holiday, our domestic airport business is expected to almost recover to pre-Covid levels in Q2, in line with the air traffic rebound. Our strong revenue growth in China for Q2 is nevertheless affected by low international air traffic due to much reduced international airlines connections and the non-renewal of the Guangzhou International Terminal 2 airport advertising contract as well as our decision to mutually terminate our joint venture with Guangzhou metro.

As the most digitized global OOH media company, with our new data-led audience targeting and programmatic solutions, our well diversified portfolio, our ability to win new contracts, the strength of our balance sheet, the high quality of our teams across the world and our recognized ESG excellence, we believe we are well positioned to benefit from the rebound. We are more than ever confident in the power of our media in an advertising landscape increasingly fragmented and more and more digital and in the role it will play to drive economic growth as well as positive changes.”

The highest performing category for the company in the Quarter is Transport:

First quarter adjusted revenue increased by +8.1% to €254.0 million (+7.9% on an organic basis), reflecting a rebound in both air passenger traffic and public transport systems. Most geographies grew double-digit and Rest of the World was already above Q1 2019 revenue levels. Transport remained nevertheless meaningfully impacted by the lower level of mobility compared to pre-Covid levels, particularly for China international air travel.

Last week, Germany’s largest OOH media firm Ströer published its business performance financials for the first quarter of 2023, with Digital OOH revenues up by 17%.